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Australian Wine on the Global Stage

Click on the image above to view a video of my recent talk on “Australia on the Global Stage” at Savour Australia 2013, the international gathering designed to re-launch Brand Australia to the world market.

Unfortunately you can’t see the slides that I used to illustrate my talk, but I think you will get a good idea of what the audience experienced. I received lots of positive feedback — I guess most people were surprised that an economist could be interesting at 9 am! Who knew?

I’m still travelling in Australia (Tasmania at the moment), but I’ll file a series of reports on the conference once I’m back in the office. In the meantime, enjoy the video of my talk and check out the other presentations.

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Come back next week for the final report in the three-part series on wine in China.

I really enjoyed this talk. I specialize in the global wine industry and was a speaker at Dominican University Global Wine Marketing Conference 2013. I preach to my colleagues that wine marketers on the ground and academics must work together to keep our finger on the pulse of a complicated, ever-changing industry. You made several important points that back up my advice to what I call re-emerging markets like Australia, margins are key, Millennials want to drink better wine, stories make the difference especially at the $15-25 price (my market interest), and don’t just Talk, Talk, Talk, Act Act, Act. Well done.

In the brief time you had to mention the challenges of the US market, you had time to bring up one key point that a winery must have in place here–distribution. If I may, I’d like to mention the other two parts of the three legged stool for selling wine in the US–one must provide intensive support to retailers and restaurants to move the wine (belly-to-belly in this relationship business); and one must create consumer demand (these days through social media). As Deborah Gray wrote in her book, How to Import Wine, distributors don’t sell your wine. Deborah explains who does in a humorous and accessible way. (Surprise, it’s people like me working on the ground in the marketplace). I highly recommend her book to your audiences.

Great talk, Mike! That was some really interesting insight on the American industry, and also a lot of hope for success in the Australian one (which is great news for me, as I will be there in two weeks ready to work!)

The Wine Economist

What would you get if you crossed the Wine Spectator, America's best-selling wine magazine, with the Economist, the world's leading business weekly? The answer is this blog, The Wine Economist, which analyzes and interprets today's global wine markets. The Wine Economist was named 2015 "Best in the World" wine blog by Gourmand International. Staff: Mike Veseth (editor-in-chief) & Sue Veseth (contributing editor).